Certainly top 1000 BPL players and one of the best crossers I've seen (but then so was Nicky summerbee)

One of the better England players of his era but that's not much of a compliment.

No pace, limited by not being able to use weak foot/outside of right foot.

Got sent off for act of petulance in huge game, pulled out of a tackle v Brazil which led to equaliser, bottled his 4 biggest England pens (lucky for him the one v Argies went in), used to turn his back to his opponent whenevr going up for a header (rare) and never got beyond a QF.

Legend and all time great

People talk about his crossing and free-kicks but the one thing they never seem to mention are his ambassadorial qualities which make him such a great ambassador.

You would hope that if the FA are in need of an ambassador, they will recognise his ambassadorial qualities and give him some sort of role as an ambassador.

Forgetting the hype about the youth development of the DFB for a second as the English media seems to go overboard with this these days (wish they'd go back to hype everything Spanish to be honest), this part of the following Guardian article really sums up the core of the problem of English football, as I had mentioned earlier:

According to Uefa, Germany has 28,400 (England 1,759) coaches with the B licence, 5,500 (895) with the A licence and 1,070 (115) with the Pro licence, the highest qualification.

Those are ridiculous stats, seriously. For a major football nation, actually the birthplace of modern football, that's pretty pathetic. The English FA seriously has to focus on nurturing coaches / managers and giving them professional education. There is a reason why there are hardly and English coaches / managers in the EPL these days. Forget the players for a second, your clubs produce quite a few quality youngsters actually, concentrate on the coaches.

"When I went to Aston Villa eight years ago I told them our players, under-17, 18 and 19, go to school for 34 hours a week," he says. "They said: 'No, you're a liar, it's not possible, our players go for nine hours.' I said: 'No, I'm not lying.' They said: 'It's not possible, you can't train and do 34 hours of education.' I said: 'Sure. And what do you do with the players who have for three years, from the age of 16 to 19, only had nine hours a week of school?

"They said: 'They have to try to be a professional or not. They have to decide.' I said: 'No, we can't do that in Freiburg. It's wrong. Most players in our academy can't be professionals, they will have to look for a job. The school is the most important thing, then comes football.' We give players the best chance to be a footballer but we give them two educations here. If 80% can't go on to play in the professional team, we have to look out for them. The players that play here, the majority of them go on to higher education. And we need intelligent players on the pitch anyway."

"When I went to Aston Villa eight years ago I told them our players, under-17, 18 and 19, go to school for 34 hours a week," he says. "They said: 'No, you're a liar, it's not possible, our players go for nine hours.' I said: 'No, I'm not lying.' They said: 'It's not possible, you can't train and do 34 hours of education.' I said: 'Sure. And what do you do with the players who have for three years, from the age of 16 to 19, only had nine hours a week of school?

"They said: 'They have to try to be a professional or not. They have to decide.' I said: 'No, we can't do that in Freiburg. It's wrong. Most players in our academy can't be professionals, they will have to look for a job. The school is the most important thing, then comes football.' We give players the best chance to be a footballer but we give them two educations here. If 80% can't go on to play in the professional team, we have to look out for them. The players that play here, the majority of them go on to higher education. And we need intelligent players on the pitch anyway."

Why am I not surprised about Aston Villa...

Then they have that Brummie accent so life's pretty much over if they don't make it as footballers

Kroos wrote:in the last 4 WC qualifiers, england has 3 home games, thats an UTTER disadvantage for them

they don`t have the quality to break down teams at home, and the away team will only wait and see what england is capable to do, and hit them on the break

i fully expect NO ENGLAND at the WC2014

It's a good spin but I would be more worried for England if Ukraine or Poland were above them. Respect to Montenegro for doing well so far, there's a big question mark over whether they can sustain it.

Generally though it's much worse travelling to some random country in eastern europe in the middle of the season than playing at home, staying in some 5-star hotel near wembley etc. England have the last 2 games at home against Montenegro and Poland, and while England probably have to win so might Montenegro and Poland (if they are fighting for the 1-2 spots) so I doubt they can just sit back and play for the draw as they might end up losing and missing out completely.

England still might spectacularly fail, but not because they have 3 home games.

Kroos wrote:in the last 4 WC qualifiers, england has 3 home games, thats an UTTER disadvantage for them

they don`t have the quality to break down teams at home, and the away team will only wait and see what england is capable to do, and hit them on the break

i fully expect NO ENGLAND at the WC2014

The Oracle strikes again.

If your predictions had been correct, Germany would have been treble champs in 2008, 2010 and 2012 whilst Spain continued to underachieve cos that's what theyd always done.

Sorry if I therefore don't take you on your word.

There is some truth in your assessment, however England broke down Brazil at home in a friendly with more significance than a half hearted end of season one against Ireland. Team will look more like that one as well.

We ll qualify and fail in groups or second round. We are at the moment an above average side just good enough to qualify but not good enough to do anything in the knockouts.

Don't see this changing for at least 10years whilst youth and coaching structure begins to change, which it's looking like it's starting to with the u18s, 21s premier league and st George s park. Until then, lets just pin our hopes on Jack wilshere the half crock, as he's the only world class player we re going to have for awhile.

He may go overboard as always but Kroos actually has a point - England struggle against teams they are supposed to break down, there is a lack of creativity and fluidity. This is actually along the lines of what Pierre has been saying for years, so hardly anything new.

Mongrel Hawk wrote:And Germany in red are ridiculous! Should be always white or green.

But Germany has certainly the most beautiful international kit. Same as Corinthians. White shirt, black shorts, white socks.

Actually, the red kit is a thing of the past, we went back to the traditional green kit as our second kit for Euro 2012. Not that it broughts us any luck, though...

It may be from the past, but it's not the German I know since my childhood in the 80s.

Did you know that Brazil played in white in the past? White shirt and blue shorts until the WC in Brazil in 1950. The yellow came only in the mid 50s. Black and white TV does´t help, I know. Yellow and white look quite the same.

Oh I do wonder about some people on here sometimes. If you genuinely believe Hodgson is the right man for England then I can only hope you won't criticise him if A) England dont make the World Cup or B) they make it but go out in the group stage or the last 16.

Oh I do wonder about some people on here sometimes. If you genuinely believe Hodgson is the right man for England then I can only hope you won't criticise him if A) England dont make the World Cup or B) they make it but go out in the group stage or the last 16.

Oh I do wonder about some people on here sometimes. If you genuinely believe Hodgson is the right man for England then I can only hope you won't criticise him if A) England dont make the World Cup or B) they make it but go out in the group stage or the last 16.